About The Royal College of Nursing (RCN)
|
| The Royal College of Nursing represents
over 365,000 nurses, midwives, health visitors and nursing
students across the UK and are influential voice for nursing
both at home and abroad. RCN Wales has over 20,000
members and promotes nursing interests on a wide range
of issues by working closely with the National Assembly,
other professional bodies and voluntary agencies, campaigning
on behalf of its members and the people they care for.
Our membership now includes level 3 NVQ health care assistants.
The majority of RCN members work in the NHS with approximately
one quarter employed in the independent sector. |
| The RCN represents nurses and nursing,
promotes excellence in practice and shapes health policies. |
| Introduction |
| 1. The Royal College of Nursing Wales
welcomes the opportunity to contribute to the Richard
Commission's consultation on the future powers and electoral
arrangements of the National Assembly for Wales.
Our mission calls us to shape government policy and to
represent nursing in Wales. Given that the outcome
of the Commission will almost certainly affect health
policy and therefore nurses, we feel it appropriate to
respond to the consultation. Indeed, as an organisation
that plays an important and increasing role in Welsh civil
society, we feel that it is desirable for us to feed into
the process that may well lead to a new constitutional
settlement for Wales. |
| 2. Any hesitancy in endorsing too
many 'hard and fast' recommendations to some of the Commission's
more contentious questions is a result of the RCN's strict
rule of political neutrality. We have never affiliated
to any political party as we see our task as representing
all of our members. |
| The Powers Of The National Assembly
For Wales |
| 3. The Commission's first consultation
paper, The Powers of the National Assembly for Wales
(Nov 2002), asked consultees for their view regarding
the proposals to extend the powers of the Assembly to
include full law making powers. Devolution is still
a controversial and contested party political issue in
Wales and RCN members in Wales hold a wide variety of
views on what Wales's constitutional status should be. |
| 4. The RCN therefore does not wish
to express a view directly on the proposal to recommend
primary law making powers or tax varying powers.
However, we would very much like to put on record our
concern about the lack of clarity and definition of the
Assembly's current legislative authority. Acts of
Parliament give the Assembly differing degrees of scope
in writing secondary legislation. It is rarely clear
what the parameters of these powers are, especially regarding
the corpus of secondary powers inherited from Acts of
Parliament passed before devolution. |
| 5. The policy of free personal care
for older people in long term care is a 'test case' in
this area for the RCN. Free personal care was first
advocated by the Royal Commission on Long Term Care in
1999 and was implemented in Scotland in 2002 after the
Scottish Parliament passed an Act to implement the policy.
In Wales, an Advisory Group on Older People endorsed
the policy in a report to the Welsh Assembly Government
in 2001. In June 2002 the National Assembly voted
to adopt the policy but stated that it would need an Act
of Parliament from Westminster to implement it.
As yet, there has been no progress in getting a 'Free
Personal Care (Wales) Bill sponsored by the UK Government.
The case for primary legislative powers for the National
Assembly will be strengthened if the UK Government persists
in frustrating the will of the Assembly and the people
of Wales on these sort of public policy issues. |
| 6. The key to the success of the
existing devolution settlement is the ability of the Assembly
to ensure the passage of primary legislation at Westminster
to implement its policies, as the constitutional expert
Professor Robert Hazell has noted1. As yet, the consequences of downgrading the
post of Secretary of State for Wales and the status of
the Wales Office are unclear. However, it is unlikely
to lead to the enhancement of the Assembly's ability to
acquire sufficient parliamentary time to implement its
policy programme. |
| 7. A good example of the effect that
the inability to acquire sufficient parliamentary time
has on policy can be seen in the creation of Health Professions
Wales (HPW). HPW is a key body for nurses and other
health professions in Wales2. However its creation has been delayed significantly
by the inability of the UK Government to find time for
a Wales-only Health Bill in the 2001-02 session.
In Scotland, the necessary legislation was passed swiftly
by its own Parliament and the equivalent body was set
up well over a year before HPW3 . |
| 8. The RCN therefore recommends
that the Commission give serious consideration to: |
- clarifying the legislative powers of the
National Assembly for Wales, to ensure that
the governance arrangements for Wales are transparent,
coherent, and effective in delivering policy outcomes
for the people of Wales.
|
| The Structure Of The National Assembly
For Wales |
| 9. The Commission's first consultation
paper also asks consultees to state their view on the
status of the National Assembly as a corporate body and
whether a clear split between the executive and legislative
aspects of the Assembly's work should be made. |
| 10. The paper notes that the classic
division of powers between the legislative and executive
aspects of government is not particularly clear in the
Government of Wales Act 1998. However, the Assembly
in 2001 devised a de facto arrangement that would
split the legislative functions of the Assembly from the
work of what has become known as the Welsh Assembly Government.
The RCN believes that clear lines of accountability for
political decision making is important to a properly functioning
democratic body. We believe that there is a natural
distinction between the legislative and scrutiny work
of Assembly Members and the executive/administrative work
of the Welsh Assembly Government. It is also instructive
to note that the corporate body model followed for devolution
in Wales was not followed for devolution in Scotland or
Northern Ireland. However, we consider the
ministerial membership of the relevant subject committee
has been a success. In any new arrangement, we would
wish to see ministerial membership of subject committees
continue. |
| 11. The RCN considers that the confusion
in the general public's mind between the Assembly's executive
and the legislative work has contributed in part to its
lack of public esteem. Members of the public often
lay the blame for a policy failure at the door of the
institution of the "the Assembly" rather than the Assembly
Government of the day. This distinction is clearer
in the work of UK Government and Parliament. Members
of public are aware that policy failures or successes
are the responsibility of the Government rather than of
the House of Commons as an institution. |
| 12. The
RCN therefore recommends that the Commission give serious
consideration to: |
- creating a legally enshrined distinction
between the National Assembly as a legislative body
the executive/administrative role of the Welsh Assembly
Government. This would formalise what
has become a reality in the Assembly's first term
and is a course of action that should be followed
regardless of whether the Commission decides to support
legislative powers for the National Assembly.
|
| The Electoral System Of The National
Assembly For Wales |
| 13. The RCN is not committed to a
particular electoral system and therefore we do not propose
a particular prescription to the issues outlined in the
Commission's March 2003 paper, Electoral Arrangements
of the National Assembly For Wales. We would
however wish to enunciate some very broad principles of
an appropriate electoral system. |
| 14. We favour a system that represents
the democratic wishes of the electorate and one that renders
politicians accountable to their electors. In line
with what we say about the size of the Assembly in paragraph
24, the RCN would also wish to encourage the Commission
to recommend an electoral system that would be likely
to encourage a diversity of representation (especially
from members of black and minority ethnic communities),
and the maintenance of a gender-balanced Assembly.
In this sense, our approach favours points B, C, D and
E on page 6 of the consultation paper. |
| 15. The RCN also notes that a system
of representation that relates to the proportion of votes
case to the number of seats won in the Assembly elections
has gained broad support across political parties in Wales
and in much of civil society. |
| 16. We would also wish to stress
the importance of having an electoral system that maximises
the turnout at Assembly elections in Wales. The
turnout at the last Assembly election of 38% does not
enhance the Assembly's status and indicates dissatisfaction
with the progress made by it. We hope that the outcome
of the Richard Commission, if implemented, will help to
boost the credibility of the National Assembly in the
eyes of the electorate. |
| The Size Of The National Assembly
For Wales |
| 17. The Commission specifically asked
consultees to address the issue of the size of the Assembly's
membership. Several Assembly Members and fellow
consultees have suggested a membership for the Assembly
of 80 AMs, which would tally with the number of seats
contained in the new Assembly building. Others have
suggested the continuation of the current total of 60
seats. |
| 18. The RCN has approached this issue
from the perspective of what number of AMs would optimise
the scrutiny, policy development and executive role of
the Assembly as a whole. |
| 19. The scrutiny and policy development
roles of members is not helped by the limited pool of
'backbenchers' that are available to sit on the Assembly's
seven subject committees. Assembly Members sitting
on two subject committees in the previous Assembly term
had to contend with two very substantial policy briefs
and often committee papers which exceeded 200 pages in
length every week. According to the latest figures,4 a third of backbench AMs (18 in total) are members
of two subject committees. Indeed, if one includes
the Assembly's standing committees as well as subject
committees, almost every backbench AM is on two or more
committees. The RCN is not of the view that this
overload of work permits the effective scrutiny of the
executive or efficacious policy development. |
| 20. To this burden of work can be
added the membership of the Assembly's regional committees
(of which every AM is a member) and other associated bodies
such as the Local Government Partnership Council the Voluntary
Sector Partnership Council, the board of Barcud Derwen,
the Pension Trustee's and other ad hoc committees.
The pressure of committee work has led the Assembly to
decide to hold its subject committee meetings every three
weeks rather than fortnightly. This sub-optimal
arrangement will make it more difficult for AMs to scrutinise
the work of the executive and make a meaningful contribution
to policy development. |
| 21. The work of Assembly Members
is not helped by the geography and transport infrastructure
of Wales. Members with constituencies in parts of
West, Mid or North Wales can spend the equivalent of one
day a week in their cars or on the train. In addition
to the travelling and committee work, members legitimately
give a large amount of time to their constituency work.
The extent to which Assembly Members have been overloaded
by this committee, plenary and constituency work is reflected
in their inability to properly scrutinise the secondary
legislation that was generated by the Assembly Government
in its first term. According to an answer to a recent
Assembly question5, only 28% of the 700 pieces of legislation
passed by the Assembly between 1999 and 2003 were subject
to any scrutiny by Assembly Members in plenary
or in a subject committee. |
| 22. One of the key functions of the
National Assembly is that it should be an inclusive and
consultative body that has a supportive and symbiotic
relationship with civil society in Wales. Since
the advent of devolution, civil society in Wales has grown
and developed significantly. Most voluntary organisations,
professional organisations, and community groups now devote
much of their work to influencing the National Assembly
and the Welsh media. Organisations have invested
significant time, resources and energy to influencing
the National Assembly since its inception in 1999. |
| 23. In the initial phase of the Assembly's
existence, there was a conscious and enthusiastic effort
on the part of AMs to engage and consult with civil society.
This was in sharp contrast with the pre-devolution era.
However, as the work of the Assembly has bedded down and
the workload escalated, it is now more difficult to secure
the attendance of AMs at briefing sessions or issue-based
receptions. This is in part due to the large number
of these events, which in turn signifies how seriously
civil society and the business sector in Wales treats
the Assembly. Though the situation is still far
superior to any of the pre-devolution political arrangements,
there is a danger that the work of the Assembly with regard
to openness and inclusively might not be consolidated
sufficiently with the current number of AMs. |
| 24. Arguments for the expansion in
the number of Assembly members can also be made from a
position that wishes to promote greater diversity in Welsh
political life. The Assembly has been an exemplar
for legislatures across the globe in terms of its complete
gender balance and in its family friendly working arrangements.
The Assembly's record of representation in other
areas however is frankly poor. The Assembly has
never had a member who is black or from a minority ethnic
community, a member with a significant disability, a member
who is openly gay or lesbian, or a transsexual member.
This is something that political parties conspicuously
failed to address in the 2003 Assembly elections. |
| 25. The RCN is also concerned that
the intentions of the National Assembly Advisory Group
(NAAG) on the workings of the Assembly have not been carried
through with regard to Assembly Members' attendance at
Cardiff Bay. We applaud the Assembly's courageous
but sometimes unpopular decision to keep to family friendly
working hours and the school term system, but have concerns
about the absence of members on the Assembly's third sitting
day, Thursday. |
| 26. NAAG suggested the allocation
of Mondays and Fridays for constituency business and Tuesday
to Thursday for Assembly business. However, organisations
now find that with the exception of attendance at a small
number of committee meetings, Thursday has ceased to be
a 'sitting day' for most AMs. This means that the
work of the Assembly, especially with regard to outside
bodies, is compressed into two days. The RCN believes
that it is not unreasonable for AMs to treat Tuesday,
Wednesdays and Thursdays as sitting days, especially as
most legislatures in the Western world sit for four or
even five days a week, with similar transport challenges
for members. |
| 27. The RCN therefore recommends
that the Commission gives serious consideration to: |
- increasing the number of Assembly Members
from 60 to 80 in order for there to be a critical
mass of AMs that would ensure that all of the functions
of the Assembly are adequately fulfilled.
This would also be likely to ensure a greater diversity
of members in the National Assembly, including membership
for the first time from members of black and minority
ethnic communities, and;
- reasserting the norm that Assembly business
of all kinds (committee work, plenary work and civil
society liaison work) should be conducted for three
full days a week.
|
|
|
| Board Secretary |
Ty Maeth
July 2003 |
1 For
more on this issue please see Robert Hazell's chapter
'Multi-Level Governance' in The Birth of Welsh Democracy,
edited by John Osmond and J Barry Jones (Institute of
Welsh Affairs: 2003). Hazell describes how the Health
Minister Jane Hutt's promise of a Health & Well Being
(Wales) Bill for the 2001-02 session was not agreed to
by the UK Government.
2 More information on the work of Health Professional
Wales can be found at http://www.wnb.org.uk/
3 Op. cit. pg.22
4 Gained from the from the Office
of the Presiding Officer's Committee Secretariat
5 For further details please
see the First Minister's response to Written Assembly
Question 26569
|
